Skaneateles: Village suspends work on parking revision

Parking was on the Skaneateles Village Board member's minds again Aug. 24 as the board continued a public hearing on the subject.

The hearing, for consideration of the proposed local law to modify the off-street parking requirements in the village, was opened by Mayor Bob Green who read a statement from the board.

According to Green, the trustees have discussed and considered a variety of amendments to Article XII of the village code for the past 10 months. The article regulates off-street parking requirements and has existed for many years, and imposes certain parking space requirements on residential and commercial properties in the village.

"Its primary focus, and impact, is with regard to commercial buildings in the core of the village," Green said. "Many of those buildings have insufficient on-site parking for their tenants and the impact of that shortage has been felt by the community at large."

In 2005, the village enacted revisions to the article with the intent to modernize off-street parking requirements "in the face of increased commercial development and redevelopment."

"One of the features of the 2005 revision was the creation of a parking trust fund, which would be used solely for the purpose of creating new public parking spaces and for purchasing parking-related equipment," Green said. "Another feature was the imposition of a parking space variance fee on those applicants who could not provide a required minimum number of on-site parking spaces."

The trustees had at the same time enacted revisions to the village's public parking regulations, in particular for the municipal parking lot. The revisions were done with the intended purpose of creating turnover in those spaces so they would be more readily available.

While the new parking requirements have been largely successful, some difficulties arose in connection with the interpretation, applications and enforcement of the off-street parking requirements for properties in the core of the village.